15 
time the insect had done no damage, although he had looked for injury 
inhisvicinity. A gentleman of hisacquaintance, who had raised potatoes 
in one of the potato districts of Pennsylvania, said that this species, 
as a rule, had little effect on the general crop there. Mr. H. M. 
Kirkpatrick, who reported injury in 1897, stated that no further dam- 
age had been noticed in Wyandotte County, Kans. 
From Mr. Edwin Taylor, Edwardsville, Kans., was received infor- 
mation that this species had been present in that vicinity for a good 
many years, but that it had never injured the potato crop seriously. 
Writing December 23, 1901, he stated that this insect was less observed 
that year than usual. 
From the above and other sources of information it would seem 
that this species is unusually periodical, and injuries are generally to be 
attributed to the growth of potatoes on or in the vicinity of land that 
has been permitted to run to Solanaceous weeds, nearly all of which 
furnish food for the potato stalk weevil. A list of these will be fur- 
nished later on in the present article. 
EARLIER DIVISIONAL RECORDS. 
August 1, 1884, vines containing this larva were received from Mr. 
Richard B. Taylor, Westchester, Pa.,with the statement that this borer 
had destroyed two-thirds of his potato crop (Ann. Rept. Com. Agr. 
for 1884, p. 411). September 6, 1892, Miss Mary E. Murtfeldt reported 
the rearing of this curculio from Solanwm carolinense at Kirkwood, 
Mo. (Insect Life, Vol. V, p. 135). July 20, 1893, larvee of this species 
were received from Mr. H. Still, Deep Creek, Va., found boring in 
the stems of eggplant, with the statement that the plants were dying 
by the hundreds daily. August 5, 1895, Mr. W. T. L. Taliaferro, 
Belair, Md., sent larve in stalks of potato. August 26, 1896, we 
received larve and sections of potato stalks killed by this species 
from Mr. G. C. Brown, Yorkana, Pa., who stated that the insect 
was new to that locality so far as injuries were concerned. <A few 
other records of injury have been published in the columns of Insect 
Life and in bulletins of the Division of Entomology. 
LITERATURE AND HISTORY OF THE SPECIES. 
The potato stalk weevil was first described as Baridius trinotatus, 
in 1831, by Thomas Say (Descr. N. Am. Curculionides, ete., p. 18). 
In the year 1849 this insect attracted some attention by its ravages 
in the vicinity of Germantown, Pa., and Camden, N. J., as related by 
Miss M. H. Morris, in a communication published in the American 
Agriculturist of the following year (April, 1850, Vol. LX, pp. 118, 
114). The account in question, which is the first that was published 
concerning this insect, is headed ‘The Potato Curculio,” and is erro- 
neous in some particulars, owing to the fact that the disease known as 
